- The book is just filled with NPCs, with images, many of which are photos. I assume they are Indiegogo backers who bought their way into the book. Some images look great, some have noticeable photoshop, but the whole effect would work better if it was uniform around the book instead photos plus traditional art. The layout as a whole is fantastic, with great looking "old" maps and the drawn art being uniformly evocative.

- No adventure, no random adventure generator and no plot point campaign. Even a Savage Tale or an adventure generator would have helped out a bit.

- The editing was still rough in spots, with noticeable typos jumping out in places. I have been told that is under revision, however.

- Dog people are a nice break from standard fantasy people. If anything, we usually get wolves or shapechangers, but this was a nice touch.

- A lot of ground is covered in a short period of time, as the book rarely lingers too long while detailing even the past or present. A brevity that I surely appreciate.

- Despite the broad strokes familiarity with Hellfrost, Winter Eternal still manages to strike a unique profile as a "dark fantasy game in the bitter cold". Its unique spin on a "Points of Light" setting is not something I immediately recall being done in Savage Worlds, and is one of the better implementations of that that I have seen.

Winter Eternal strikes a unique cord despite the familiar elements, marred mostly by editing that could have been tighter and design choices that could have been more uniform, but were probably a necessary evil due to crowd funding. I don't see many games that particularly place themselves in a "world in recovery", and the "optimist wrapped in a cynic" in me surely appreciates the aesthetic of people trying to pull themselves out of the darkness. Definitely worth checking out, and - of course - you still have plenty of time to win a copy!

- Random Barbarian Facts (Barbarians argue with Barbarians, they fight with everyone else) are scattered around the book and are pretty humorous.

- The game reads like it's hard to take seriously, and the adventure backs that up by being too lite. A good, goofy random adventure table could have gone a long ways here.

- The system is simple, but easy to play around with, as evidenced by some of the combat options. Some of those examples serve as a nice example of how a little description can sell the action more than tables of modifiers can.

- The price point is pretty good, especially with the "read the PDF, upgrade to the print" option.

- The sample settings can give you more ideas on how to tweak the setting. Barbarians vs Elves? Barbarians vs Vampires? Barbarians vs Underground Psychic Bomb Worshippers? Most of the book focuses on Barbarians...you can play around with it and figure out who they fight.

- Because this stuff MATTERS in a game about Barbarians, you also get a random loot table to make the GM's job easier when determining what the Barbarians' latest victims had.

Barbarians Versus is a cute and fun book with a solid skeleton under it, and options that allow a GM to play around with the setting, suitable for a one shot or short campaign play and priced accordingly.

- The book and PDF are meant to be incredibly user friendly, with all the links and such, the form fillable character sheet and even a character creation summary after the full index.

- The Knightwatch is guide by the AI known as M.E.R.L.I.N. That's not just a cute nod at the legend, it is outright mentioned that if the legend of Merlin living backwards through time is true, that this may be his birth.

- The book uses little art, instead opting to use photographs (often with a lot of make-up and/or photoshop), which is very jarring for an RPG, and took some getting used to. Ultimately, it's not bad, and gives the book an incredibly distinct appearance, especially combined with the "corporate handbook" feel.

- The Bibliography is terribly important here, I think. This isn't King Arthur in the Future. The recommended reading and viewing includes Dracula, Cthulhu, Demolition Man, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Robocop, The X-Files, Deadlands, Office Space and MUCH more. Interesting set of recommendations.

- Several in-universe magazines and pamphlets are provided through the book, providing valuable information as well as a look at the world.

- Random charts for populating the city, as well as creating corporate encounters on the fly. They felt oddly incomplete, though, but that may just be my love for random tables talking.

Corporia stands out on its own, as I'm not sure there are many corporate supernatural Arthurian cyberpunk games out there, especially with all that photo art. The corporate angle is particularly unique, and I like how everything largely works, though I'm not sold on the adventures...just feels like they could have been built up as something a bit more epic than they are (though I approve of Mass Combat rules...pretty much always, as long as they are narrative).

Corporate monsters hunters are not new, but Corporia puts just enough twists on the genre that it stands out from the pack as something worth investigating.

- The game is designed so that The Great Detective is always right, as suits the source material...there's an optional rule that provides Verdict cards to the suspects, which can lead to the detective being wrong.

- Tons of background information on evoking the art deco era.

- The game is definitely more about the journey and not the destination, from a game standpoint, as there is no real winner, though there is a pretty clear loser (unless you use the Verdict cards and the killer gets off scott free).

- Reference sheets are included for each of the nine case set-ups, to help you keep track of the background details.

- Though a lot of information is provided for playing in the art deco era, it wouldn't take much work to update the setting to something more contemporary, if that suited your tastes (and I know from the contest entries I have received, that it does suit many of your tastes).

- The PDF includes all of the cars from the game, if you want to print them out instead of buying the card deck.

Wicked Lies & Alibis seems like a great party game for amateur actors, or for anyone who likes their story games with a stronger emphasis on "story". I think my group will enjoy it, given how much they liked Fiasco (though this doesn't have quite the same humor emphasis), and my gut says it could be a great convention game (moreso than EPOCH, which relies a bit more on mood setting).

The first AMP adventure, Attack of The Buzz takes a moment from the AMP timeline (a crazy killer bee attack) and leads the PCs to it. Hooks are provided to help the PCs along, no matter which AMP affiliation they belong to (including being unaffiliated.

SIX POINT SUMMARY

- Smart move providing different entry points to the adventure based on affiliation. It drives home that there is no "one true way" to play the game, but there truly are options.

- Beekeeper suits.

- Critter, a major NPC from the corebook, is included again at the back of this adventure for convenience, as she plays a large (though it shouldn't be overshadowing) role in the adventure. Nice move for convenience sake.

- I believe the art used is unique to the adventure, and it is well placed and evocative (bees attacking people, plus the titular villain, who looks just a little pathetic...which is intentional).

- Two new augments for the Leash power, one that allows you to ward off animals and one that allows you to forge soldiers out of swarms.

- The adventure provides a few more nice examples of how to use Skill Combos in different situations (like hiding from bees). Does a nice job of illustrating the flexibility of the skills.

A solid adventure with an interesting antagonist with a back story that serves to illustrate just the kind of world this is. The Buzz isn't a cackling supervillain, and this isn't a comic book. It's a super powered tragedy more than anything...and that ain't bad. I can send Swarm at my PCs in Marvel SAGA all day long, AMP needs to do something different to be worth my time, and it does.

Nothing shady about a mysterious organization recruiting AMPs in the name of SCIENCE~! and research, right? And when a patient goes missing, the PCs get the call...what could go wrong?

SIX POINT SUMMARY

- A little less universal utility than Attack of the Buzz. While far from rigid, the entry points are just a little less open - and thus a little less likely to fit any and all characters - than the first adventure.

- A pair of intriguing setting developments: An AMP whose powers mutate over time, and a human genetic experiment on par with an AMP.

- No new mechanical crunchy bits like augments.

- The adventure is actually very wide open. Little points that can be expanded upon by the GM to fit the mood they want, and the PCs' decisions have a huge impact on the ending and the repercussions that follow.

- The bad guys have the potential to be truly scary, and far reaching, depending on how the PCs handle them.

- Again, original art is commissioned for the adventure, and it sets the tone nicely.

While this one is going to be a touch harder to fit into every campaign than Attack of the Buzz, I like it a bit more, as it allows the GM a little more flexibility than a lot of written adventures, something I truly appreciate, complete with advice on how to carry these threads out of the adventure and back into your regular campaign.

An AMP horror adventure! The White Knight takes place the night of Halloween, 2015 (culminating on November 1st - All Souls Day), and leaves the PCs in the midst of an ongoing battle between two warring AMPs.

- This adventure is very much a horror adventure. While all of the AMP adventures have a slightly more unsettling tone to them than the typical supers adventure, this one falls deep in a dark place.

- New Augments are presented for the Mediumship power, which makes sense as it shows off two NPCs with Mediumship who have developed in VERY different ways, both in personality and concept, as well as in actual manifestation of powers.

- The bad guy in this adventure has completely lost the script, a good example of someone who starts down the road to Hell with good intentions and becomes an absolutely horrible monster in the end.

- White Knight is a great example of a big, important (for the adventure) NPC, who does not overshadow the PCs because of smart design by the author.

- This one, unfortunately, lacks the effective art of the other two, which is doubly disappointing because it arguably needs the tone set more.

- Ran many supers adventures with a full blown zombie horde? I haven't, and I've been running supers games for decades. And it gets WORSE from there.

Easily one of the most unique supers adventures I have seen, and probably the one I would tell you to pick up if you only bought one, in part because of the uniqueness of it, and in part because of the fantastic side by side example of how to build two completely different characters with the same primary power.

- Production values are a mixed bag. The aesthetics of the interior, and the full page art pieces, look great. Unfortunately, the cover text seemed somewhat digitized and out of focus, either a layout issue or a printing issue.

- Mass Combat rules are great. Mass Combat rules that heavily resemble my favorite set of Mass Combat rules, but with a few twists unique to the system, are even better.

- As I said above, I am more comfortable with the Le Morte D'Arthur, so it did take me a bit to get into the more historical Arthur. This does a nice job of setting it apart from the other major Arthurian game on the market (Pendragon).

- I love how the various magical subsystems are built on the same solid base, but have the unique flourishes to set them apart. Definitely not crunchy, even "Fate crunchy", but Faith feels different than Druid Magic which feels different than Shapeshifting.

- The cultural and geographic sections of the book aim for breadth over depth, covering a lot of ground in multiple, single-paragraph or so entries. I'm not usually upset with this approach, and I find it even more acceptable in a game with a historical basis, since I can research Britain in the 400s easier than I can, say, the Forgotten Realms in the 1200s.

- Lots of wonderful, professional touches such as a fully functional index and table of contents, as well as a glossary and a pronunciation guide, the latter of which I REALLY wish more companies would use, especially if they are using lots of fantasy names or, in this case, historical dialects.

A great product marred by small production flaws that bring down the overall package, but counters that with a great Arthurian take that feels a little grittier than your normal Fate game. Personally, I like the shoutout to the dragon in Loch Ness.

- A very interesting structure, with conditions on "clearing" each section of the map, with the PCs often being better off finding the root source of the trouble in each area, rather than hunting down the different minions.

- Some great layers are present in the area. Sure, you can "just" deal with the ghost on the road...or you can find out why she's there...and STILL not know everything (relevant to the game) that there is to know about her.

- This is very much a sandbox, and one that the author tried to pepper with enough material and hooks to help your players bite on.

- If you don't know anything about the world of Alia-Wor, it's not a big deal. I could easily see how one could fit this into the Forgotten Realms, for instance, and if my 5e group hadn't already hit level 9, I probably would. There's always the next campaign...

- The art is good, but perhaps a bit cartoonish. Your mileage may vary on how well it fits the tone of the area and adventure.

A very good product that reminds me of the output from Small Niche Games, which I am a huge fan of. It would take very little effort to turn this into a multisession campaign (or at least mini campaign), with the sandbox feel and the various plot layers that can be peeled away for sessions.

I won't sit here and pretend to know what is, or is not, good "old school"...but I know what I like, and I liked this..a bit more than I expected, even. Worth getting if you want a low level sandbox campaign with a slightly horror feel...and don't worry, most of you can convert it to your favorite D&D version (maybe even your favorite system) pretty easily.

- Just tons of random tables, from interesting background facts to random real life events to random band name generators. Obviously, I find this to be hugely appealing.

- Sure seems like this could be hacked for indy pro wrestlers with just a little work.

- It feel very close to Tools of Ignorance, but with some cool and clear tweaks to make the struggling rock band vibe ring true.

- Something about "Jobs" never quite "clicked" with me. Ostensibly, a crappy, no future job was depressing and ground you down, but were less demanding on your time, but I didn't see that mechanical balance on the demands of the job. I don't know if I just missed it or what.

- It probably needed some kind of mechanic for one of the band members to become a "breakout star" and become "too big" for the band.

- A little bit of rock attitude, but no exploitative art, which makes this nice pick for a broad audience looking for something more than standard RPG fare.

I liked the idea of Tools of Ignorance, even though I don't like baseball. I love this, because it's a great idea and more in my wheelhouse. I really just can't shake the notion that this would be relatively easy to adapt to indy pro wrestling.

If you are always grumbling that there's nothing fresh out there, then spend the $5 to pick this up.

- Divorced from the setting, I would grumble at the limitations of the power system...and for a generic superhero game, I would not recommend it. For a very particular type of game (a Heroes or X-Men-style game), it fits the tone very well.

- The official character sheet is very cool in that it has boxes to fill in when making your character (like four boxes for a Marksmanship of four), which gives you a completed sheet that reminds me of the Power Grids Marvel has used over the years on the website, trading cards and Handbooks.

- The metaplot mildly concerns me. Obviously, you are not bound to anything in the book, but the more you deviate, the less useful later books are (or, depending on your players, the more they resist you game because of what the next book brings). Previous Third Eye Games entries such as Wu Xing and Apocalypse Prevention Inc. have had a lot of setting material, not so much metaplot. With the right touch, metaplot can enhance a game. With the wrong touch, it can bring back nightmarish memories of NPCs with Plot Armor and stories that are bigger than your PCs.

- A very healthy and diverse selection of premade characters, complete with art, can be used as quick PCs, as NPCs or just as inspiration for what can be done with the powers system. There's even a "magician" named Citizen Arcane.

- The Juice mechanic is basically a Power Points system but it reads very well, with the ebb and flow of power being influenced by more factors than just "I spend power points. Dang, I'm out of power points". It is recommended that you use some kind of physical markers (poker chips, glass beads, whatever) to keep track of the flow.

- The setting reminds me a bit of White Wolf's Aberrant or Green Ronin's Paragons, which sure seemed heavily inspired by X-Men and Heroes respectively, but with a certain vibe (and system) that suits my personal tastes much more. As much as I love Wu Xing, it has never actually hit my game table. We're through character generation with this one, and it will now certainly see play, which I am very much looking forward to.

Right now, at least, I have nothing else to add. If this sounds remotely appealing to you and you don't own it (and you are reading this before March 24), just enter the giveaway and try to win a free copy and see for yourself. You literally have nothing to lose.

- Some of the stuff, like geisha sexbots and the bioforms just seem really creepy, but not out of place.

- While I get the need to keep word count down, the lack of any game mechanics married to the Savage Tales makes them less user friendly than I, as a Savage Worlds GM, would like. Two of them essentially removing player control of their characters, especially with one of them being for the bulk of the adventure, gives me pause. That can be kind of a huge turnoff for a lot of players.

- Virtually no wasted space. Double columns of text on the pages, densely packed. Don't let the page count fool you...there's a lot of info here, including great setting elements like the virtual afterlife.

- The amusing and insightful "commentary" for in character message board/social media-like chatter continues, and I almost always love these asides. They add extra context and flavor for the text and they continue to be just the right length and frequency to get the point across without overstaying their welcome.

- I want to run a mission that takes the party into the heart of the Fukushima power plant.

- Some great mechanical tidbits, with multiple Edges and the Second Skin armor really standing out. Ancestral Zeek, Ghost in the Machine, Mask Master and Merciful are all big standouts to me.

I would say this is worth picking up if you're an Interface Zero fan, even if you aren't running a game in Japan (individuals and organizations can travel, after all, and some of the setting elements are entirely too cool to not use). It's certainly not essential, and it's not without its flaws, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons.

- I would love to hear the rationale that led to the Decay power costing MORE in this edition, when we found it to be completely worthless in Necessary Evil.

- Power Stunts are a MUCH needed shot in the arm to this system. I devised a house rule for this a while back, but it never should have needed it. A rigid supers system just cannot accommodate anything more than a specific setting built around that conceit.

- Going from "maps of supervillain lairs and the Lair power" to "full blown HQ section built by the team" is a massive improvement.

- Power Tricks, Synergy, Combined Attacks and The Defeat Chart are all great flourishes that improve the supers experience in Savage Worlds.

- While non of the supervillains included in the book screamed "USE ME!" to me, being able to see how multiple character types are modeled is hugely beneficial in a system like this.

- Power Levels are another great addition, one that acknowledges that MOST (not all) supers stories don't have steep power creep.

I was not a fan of the original Super Powers Companion. When the subject came up, I resoundingly pushed everyone to Necessary Evil instead. When they announced the second edition of this book, I was underwhelmed.

I was wrong. I wish I'd had this book when I ran Necessary Evil, because my thought process on Savage Worlds as a supers system might be radically different. I will never choose Savage Worlds as my default supers system, but with this book I would no longer dismiss the idea out of hand if my players wanted to do it.

I still want to know who thought Decay was too cheap of a power, or just what I'm missing, because that one boggles my mind.

- ICONS has a crazy amount of quality, third party support, particularly from Fainting Goat Games and Vigilance Press, so even if Ad Infinitum's already impressive slate of adventures doesn't tide you over, there is *more* out there.

- As I said in my original review: ICONS character creation is just FUN. Maybe the only game that had character creation as fun is, not surprisingly, the FASERIP Marvel game.

- I was annoyed that this came so close to Great Power (which I backed on Kickstarter), and it wasn't 100% compatible.

- Dan Houser provided every piece of art in the book, continuing to define the distinctive visual appearance of ICONS.

- The Universe rules, which incorporate the Villain Creation Rules, are just one of the coolest things I have ever seen in a game, period.

-I'm not usually a big fan of ".5" style updates, but this thing went almost point by point down my complaints list and addressed them. Hard for me to argue with that.

At the end of the day, though, I need to run this game again. I ran it once, did not care for it, but that was the old rulebook, it was my first time running the game, and I was running it for my then-very young son. My overall gut impression of the game is more positive right now, but I do want to see for myself if it's a game I could love, and the good faith effort in addressing the previous criticisms of the game (including my own) compels me to give it that shot.

1) The book is full of things you might want, but don't NEED, making it fill the role of a companion pretty well.

2) If you have struggled with how to handle witches in Deadlands Reloaded (a topic that Deadlands Classic covered but Reloaded has glossed over), witches here can cover that need.

3) Rules for vehicle customization should appease any gearheads in your group, as well as the vehicular combat rules.

4) The random adventure generator is pretty neat, and I'm pretty sure it's unique to this book, not a reskinned generator from another, which has tended to happen a lot.

5) Harrowed have always been kind of a "favored son" in Deadlands, and giving everyone the ability to Count Coup kinda diminished that a bit...but all the extra perks from being a cyborg make that come roaring back (though it is counterbalanced by cyborgs having a extra Directives to follow).

6) There's a lot of recycled art, but that doesn't bother me given how old the original Hell on Earth books are, so the art isn't technically within the same game line, and the using the art to evoke the original line is a nice touch at points.

I would say this is well worth getting for a Hell on Earth Reloaded fan, and might be worth getting in general for ripping stuff out (like Witches or the vehicle bits), if you have the cash to spare and the need to fulfill...but it answers the call of its primary purpose - a companion to Hell on Earth Reloaded - admirably.